," said Dion.

She changed the subject.

"I don't ask you to tell me about South Africa," she said. "Because you
told me the whole story as soon as I came into the room. But what are
you going to do now? Settle down in the Church's bosom at Welsley?"

There was no sarcasm in her voice.

"Oh--I'm going back to business in a few days."

"You'll run up and down, I suppose."

"It's too far, an hour and a half each way. I shall have to be in
London."

He spoke rather indecisively.

"I'm taking a fortnight's holiday, and then we shall settle down."

"I've been in Welsley," said Mrs. Clarke. "It's beautiful but, to me,
stifling. It has an atmosphere which would soon dry up my mind. All
the petals would curl up and go brown at the edges. I'm glad you're not
going to live there. But after South Africa you couldn't."

"I don't know. I find it very attractive," he said, instinctively on the
defensive because of Rosamund, who had not been attacked. "The coziness
and the peace of it are very delightful after all the--well, of course,
it was a pretty stiff life in South Africa."

Again he looked at Brayfield's letter. He wanted to tell Mrs. Clarke
about Brayfield, but it seemed she had no interest in the dead man.
While he was thinking this she quietly put out her hand, took the
letter, got up and dropped it into the fire among the blue flames from
the ship logs.

"I seldom keep letters," she said, "unless I have to answer them."

She turned round.

"I've kept yours," she said.

"The one I--it was awfully good of you to send me that telegram."

"So Allah had you in His hand."

"I don't know why when so many much better fellows----" He broke off,
and then he plunged into the matter of Brayfield. He could not go
without telling her, though hearing, perhaps, would not interest her.

All the time he was speaking she remained standing by the fire, with
her lovely little head slightly bending forward and her profile turned
towards him. The emaciation of her figure almost startled him. She wore
a black dress. It seemed to him a very simple dress. She could have told
him that such simplicity only comes from a few very good dressmakers,
and is only fully appreciated by a very few women.

Brayfield, though he was dying, had been very careful in what he had
said to Dion. In his pain he had shown that he had good blood in him. He
had not hinted even at any claim on Mrs. Clarke. But he had spoken of a
friendship which had